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MONTREAL - The question of whether protesters should be banned from wearing face masks is pitting civil libertarians against Montreal's police force, and the cops appear to be losing.
City hall has washed its hands of the issue just one year after floating the idea of a mask ban.
No other Canadian city has such a bylaw, and civil liberties organizations say unmasking protesters is an affront to freedom of expression.
Such a move would have had Montreal following in the footsteps of some foreign jurisdictions, including New York City, where a bylaw banning masks has been in effect since 1845.
Last year, France banned protesters from wearing masks after particularly violent clashes during a NATO summit between black-clad protesters and French police. The new French law carries fines of 1,500 or 3,000 euros, depending on the offence.
It's the same group of protesters that routinely causes trouble at Montreal's annual demonstration against police brutality, police here say. They're dressed in black, masked, and they often carry weapons ranging from Molotov cocktails to bricks.
Following clashes at last Monday's annual protest, Chief Insp. Sylvain Lemay said that if protesters are hiding their faces, they must be up to no good.
His comments came after 100 people were arrested during the typically raucous and slightly violent anti-police march.
It was a calmer-than-usual event this year, but nonetheless one that involved police having beer bottles and firecrackers hurled at them in the city's east end.
"For the last 14 years, we've let them protest even though they don't get a permit from the city or the police," Lemay said.
"What we want is to be able to ensure the protest takes place in a peaceful and secure manner for everyone."
But city spokesman Bernard Larin said the issue of introducing a bylaw was discussed last January before a municipal hearing, and didn't go any further than that.
"We said at the time we would examine all the judicial questions before going forward and consider both the Quebec and Canadian Charter of Rights," Larin said.
"There were a number of issues that arose that haven't been resolved and for now there is no request to go further at this point."
The issue remains on the back burner, Larin said.
Bylaw amendments that were studied by the city would have included certain exceptions for the weather, or for masks poking fun of a politician.
But human-rights organizations said the changes still opened the door to potential abuses.
"Engaging in public protest is a basic democratic right and you can't assume that all those who choose to anonymously express their point of view are doing so for nefarious reasons," said Abby Deshman, a project manager at the Canada Civil Liberties Association in Toronto.
In a world with Facebook, cellphone cameras and all-news television, there are many reasons people would want to participate but not expose themselves to the world, Deshman said.
"To force them all to reveal their identity would put a significant chill on this type of expression. In general, people should be arrested for what they do and not what they wear," Deshman said.
Montreal civil-rights lawyer Julius Grey agreed such a bylaw could be abused, and said it should be up to the police and the city to show why it's necessary.
"They're going to have to show that their concern is sufficiently important to overcome the freedom of expression (concerns) and the right to demonstrate however they want," Grey said.
"I think it is of serious limitation of freedom of expression."
Grey said he doesn't doubt that police could sometimes demonstrate the necessity but, at first glance, says such a bylaw seems unconstitutional and would surely be met with a legal challenge.
Lemay, in charge of operational planning at the police force, said a discussion should be held between police and protesters to get to the root of the problem.
A spokeswoman for the Coalition Against Police Brutality says police haven't asked them to sit down and, after Monday's events, it's unlikely they'll change their tactics.
"They'll need to change their attitude that they've adopted towards us," said Sophie Senecal.
Senecal also said it was rich that police would want protesters to unmask, after a Youtube video surfaced of undercover police officers wearing masks to infiltrate the group.
Of the 100 arrests, 83 were for municipal bylaw infractions and 17 were for Criminal Code offences. A year earlier, 221 people were arrested.
Montreal police handle 1,500 gatherings yearly and estimate that between 95 and 98 per cent end without any arrests.
